Your Navy

Navy CNO: World has changed since the Cold War

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said Thursday that while the Navy will face rival maritime forces in the future, it will not be a repeat of the Cold War. He is shown here speaking with sailors during a visit aboard the cruiser Bunker Hill in December. (Navy photo by MC3 Rachael Treon)

While the Navy is steaming into a new world where it will once again be challenged on the seas by rival maritime forces, the new challenges will not be a rote rerun of the United States’ struggles for power against the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the Navy’s top officer said Thursday.

The fleet must be better networked and manned by sailors who are trained in advanced skill sets, he said.

At the same time, the fleet must remain agile in its command and control and concepts of operations, Richardson said, while ensuring readiness does not fall by the wayside.

Richardson, a former Naval Reactors director, likened these six necessities to the nucleus of an atom.

If all parts are there, it is a pure element, he said.

“If you tear one out, you don’t have naval power, you have an isotope of naval power,” Richardson said. “These isotopes are sometimes unstable, they sometimes decay.”

He also took time to note that the Navy has operated with an enacted budget for only five of the past 18 months, due to so-called “continuing resolutions,” or CRs, a Congressional spending stopgap that is implemented when lawmakers don’t pass a budget.

Military leaders of all stripes have decried the recurring lack of a set budget and the havoc it wreaks for planning expensive initiatives, such as deep ship maintenance.

“Doing deep maintenance on a naval vessel requires a lot of planning...and you can’t write a contract to start that without stable and adequate funding”

“When you have these sorts of fits and starts, these uncertainties, you can’t write a contract unless you’ve got the funding to back it up,” Richardson said. “Planning can get shortchanged, the materials don’t come at the optimum coast, workers are difficult to hire.”

Geoff is a senior staff reporter for Military Times, focusing on the Navy. He covered Iraq and Afghanistan extensively and was most recently a reporter at the Chicago Tribune. He welcomes any and all kinds of tips at geoffz@militarytimes.com.